Hi;
I would like to build a very basic DIY headless portable Squeezebox with piCorePlayer using a Pi Zero W.
I will have 2 use cases:
1) At home - where it should connect to my standalone LMS
2) While traveling - where it should run with an internal LMS - only for the purpose of providing access to Internet Radio and Spotify via Michaels Spotty plugin. No further local music access is needed.

The questions I have:
- Will a Pi Zero W have enough steam to power an LMS - for the above (limited) purpose?
- A Question for the pCP-Gurus:
I want to use the most basic / cheap audio output - using PWM output and a h/w low pass filter (similar as the audio jack output on the 'bigger' Pi's - which is not available on the Pi Zero):
So, on the Pi Zero, we don't have PWM0 (pin #40) and PWM1 (pin #45) available on the PCB - which are the pins for the Audio jack on the big Pi's.
-> How can I get these PWM signals assigned to available pins on the Pi Zero using PcP?
(Since - as I understand it - Audio out is set per default to audio jack output - also on the Pi Zero)

d6jg

2017-08-26, 08:51

I appreciate your desire for minimal but wouldn't a Pi3 be a better option? Ok it's bigger but has the audio out, has multiple USB and a LAN and will definitely run LMS in the mode you have suggested.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

wtnh

2017-08-26, 08:52

Hi;
I would like to build a very basic DIY headless portable Squeezebox with piCorePlayer using a Pi Zero W.
I will have 2 use cases:
1) At home - where it should connect to my standalone LMS
2) While traveling - where it should run with an internal LMS - only for the purpose of providing access to Internet Radio and Spotify via Michaels Spotty plugin. No further local music access is needed.

The questions I have:
- Will a Pi Zero W have enough steam to power an LMS - for the above (limited) purpose?
- A Question for the pCP-Gurus:
I want to use the most basic / cheap audio output - using PWM output and a h/w low pass filter (similar as the audio jack output on the 'bigger' Pi's - which is not available on the Pi Zero):
So, on the Pi Zero, we don't have PWM0 (pin #40) and PWM1 (pin #45) available on the PCB - which are the pins for the Audio jack on the big Pi's.
-> How can I get these PWM signals assigned to available pins on the Pi Zero using PcP?
(Since - as I understand it - Audio out is set per default to audio jack output - also on the Pi Zero)

This won't help unless you can figure out how to modify pCP to reassign pins (it requires a device tree overlay) but it shows a simple low pass circuit to do what you are suggesting: https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-the-raspberry-pi-zero/audio-outputs. There is a pointer to the Raspberry Pi forums where you can get the overlay software to try.

I am about to try LMS on a Zero with an Allo Mini Boss DAC. I am guessing that as long as the stream is local the Zero can handle the load.

Good luck!

d6jg

2017-08-26, 08:53

I appreciate your desire for minimal but wouldn't a Pi3 be a better option? Ok it's bigger but has the audio out, has multiple USB and a LAN and will definitely run LMS in the mode you have suggested.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

PS when travelling how are you going to get the Pi onto whatever wifi is available?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

wtnh

2017-08-26, 09:03

I appreciate your desire for minimal but wouldn't a Pi3 be a better option? Ok it's bigger but has the audio out, has multiple USB and a LAN and will definitely run LMS in the mode you have suggested.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think the question about power consumption is important for a portable (battery powered) player. The Pi 3 consumes about 4 times as much current as the Zero. People have reported getting the Zero down to under 80 mA. Of course there are many factors, like what the software is doing, what's plugged in, and what's disabled (shutting off HDMI is an obvious optimization which you can do in the piCorePlayer UI).

d6jg

2017-08-26, 09:09

I think the question about power consumption is important for a portable (battery powered) player. The Pi 3 consumes about 4 times as much current as the Zero. People have reported getting the Zero down to under 80 mA. Of course there are many factors, like what the software is doing, what's plugged in, and what's disabled (shutting off HDMI is an obvious optimization which you can do in the piCorePlayer UI).

Ok but how will you get the Pi onto wifi when travelling? You aren't going to lug around a monitor and keyboard are you so I guess you must be planning to use it with your phone and it's hotspot in which case why not just use TuneIn & Spotify on the phone?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

wtnh

2017-08-26, 09:32

Ok but how will you get the Pi onto wifi when travelling? You aren't going to lug around a monitor and keyboard are you so I guess you must be planning to use it with your phone and it's hotspot in which case why not just use TuneIn & Spotify on the phone?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Valid point - I did not read the original post carefully enough; if you have a local LMS with some music stored locally on a USB drive or the SD card, it would make more sense as a portable player (take your music with you). Otherwise, a smartphone does the trick.

Jeff07971

2017-08-26, 09:36

Hi;
I would like to build a very basic DIY headless portable Squeezebox with piCorePlayer using a Pi Zero W.
I will have 2 use cases:
1) At home - where it should connect to my standalone LMS
2) While traveling - where it should run with an internal LMS - only for the purpose of providing access to Internet Radio and Spotify via Michaels Spotty plugin. No further local music access is needed.

The questions I have:
- Will a Pi Zero W have enough steam to power an LMS - for the above (limited) purpose?
- A Question for the pCP-Gurus:
I want to use the most basic / cheap audio output - using PWM output and a h/w low pass filter (similar as the audio jack output on the 'bigger' Pi's - which is not available on the Pi Zero):
So, on the Pi Zero, we don't have PWM0 (pin #40) and PWM1 (pin #45) available on the PCB - which are the pins for the Audio jack on the big Pi's.
-> How can I get these PWM signals assigned to available pins on the Pi Zero using PcP?
(Since - as I understand it - Audio out is set per default to audio jack output - also on the Pi Zero)

Why not just install Ipeng (on Iphone) or Oransqueeze (on Android) and use phone output

At home connect phone via wifi to LMS

While travelling connect via 3G or Wifi via OpenVPN (or another VPN) to LMS at home

d6jg

2017-08-26, 10:17

Why not just install Ipeng (on Iphone) or Oransqueeze (on Android) and use phone output

At home connect phone via wifi to LMS

While travelling connect via 3G or Wifi via OpenVPN (or another VPN) to LMS at home

Yep.
That's exactly what I do.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

slimhase

2017-08-26, 10:43

Thanks for all the replies.
Why do I want to did it (and not use a phone)?
-> I just like the idea of a portable DIY Squeezebox - and was inspired by pippins Tivoli Squeezebox in the DIY section -> Even the creator of ipeng does not rely on ipeng all the time :-)
So I bought a Tivoli PAL secondhand, where I want to fit everything in - thats why a Zero is needed and no external DAC, only a simple low pass like in the Adafruit tutorial
(I have a Tivoli One in the kitchen - fed by a Squeezebox - which sounds great. Thats why I would like to use a Tivoli setup)

Now back to my questions:
Enough steam on the Pi Zero for using Spotty? I guess I just have to try it.... and wait for wtnh's feedback on his setup!
WRT PWM pins - I need to see, if I get anywhere with the suggested (thanks, wtnh!) overlay software - and if I get that running on pCP.

Finally the changing WLAN setup: Hmmm - I have to admit: I did not think that through completely....
But mostly, I want to use it in our vacation house when not at home.
So I need to 'only' toggle between 2 WLAN setups. Maybe that can be done with some sort of logic in the boot process? Maybe via newconfig.cfg?

I will report back once my Zero and the Tivoli Pal arrive in the mail....

pippin

2017-08-27, 03:59

You could consider to use Max2Play instead of piCorePlayer. In my experience itís less stable but if you donít leave the device running for months at a time it probably doesnít matter.
Max2Play now has a WiFi mode in which it automatically sets up a hotspot to connect when it canít find a WiFi network.
Youíll probably find more details in the Max2Play thread.

wtnh

2017-08-27, 07:55

Thanks for all the replies.
Why do I want to did it (and not use a phone)?
-> I just like the idea of a portable DIY Squeezebox - and was inspired by pippins Tivoli Squeezebox in the DIY section -> Even the creator of ipeng does not rely on ipeng all the time :-)
So I bought a Tivoli PAL secondhand, where I want to fit everything in - thats why a Zero is needed and no external DAC, only a simple low pass like in the Adafruit tutorial
(I have a Tivoli One in the kitchen - fed by a Squeezebox - which sounds great. Thats why I would like to use a Tivoli setup)

Now back to my questions:
Enough steam on the Pi Zero for using Spotty? I guess I just have to try it.... and wait for wtnh's feedback on his setup!
WRT PWM pins - I need to see, if I get anywhere with the suggested (thanks, wtnh!) overlay software - and if I get that running on pCP.

Finally the changing WLAN setup: Hmmm - I have to admit: I did not think that through completely....
But mostly, I want to use it in our vacation house when not at home.
So I need to 'only' toggle between 2 WLAN setups. Maybe that can be done with some sort of logic in the boot process? Maybe via newconfig.cfg?

I will report back once my Zero and the Tivoli Pal arrive in the mail....

I have been wondering how to do a dual wifi setup on piCorePlayer with a Zero myself. Not so much as to move the player around for myself, but to build players for friends - I anticipate getting it to work on my wifi lan and then (knowing their SSIDs and passwords) send them the player and just have it work when they get it without fumbling with setups. I know that in linux, it is possible to have multiple wifi entries in wpa_supplicant.conf something like this:

But have not poked around much in piCorePlayer to see if this is possible. Maybe one of the pCP team members could chime in.

paul-

2017-08-27, 08:11

Wifi setup is a weakness of the Base OS that we use. There is no easy way to do what you want, outside of building scripts to manipulate it.

wtnh

2017-08-28, 11:45

Wifi setup is a weakness of the Base OS that we use. There is no easy way to do what you want, outside of building scripts to manipulate it.

I agree the wifi setup in the piCore OS is terribly convoluted. The voodoo seems to happen in ./usr/local/bin/wifi.sh, a shell script written some years ago by the TinyCore folks.

wifi.sh reads the /home/tc/wifi.db file, which in turn gets configured by the piCorePlayer web UI script /home/tc/www/cgi-bin/writetowifi.cgi. When changes are saved in the UI, the writetowifi.cgi script invokes wifi.sh with the -a (for automatic) option to bring up the wifi connection with the new parameters (fingers crossed).

The wifi.sh script looks as if it can enumerate multiple entries in wifi.db, so it would be an interesting experiment to manually add entries to wifi.db and invoke wifi.sh to see if it can find other wifi networks. If that proves out, perhaps the pCP team could consider adding a section in the wifi config screen for a second wifi network.

Just a thought.....

Max2Play

2017-08-29, 02:00

You could consider to use Max2Play instead of piCorePlayer. In my experience itís less stable but if you donít leave the device running for months at a time it probably doesnít matter.
Max2Play now has a WiFi mode in which it automatically sets up a hotspot to connect when it canít find a WiFi network.
Youíll probably find more details in the Max2Play thread.

Thanks for the shout out, pippin!

Here is our announcement and instructions (https://www.max2play.com/en/2017/08/access-point-autostart-mode/) on how to use it.

It is now our third option for first contact with your home network. You can still either just connect an ethernet cable or use the WPS feature of your router (if it has one).

slimhase

2017-08-29, 05:34

....The wifi.sh script looks as if it can enumerate multiple entries in wifi.db, so it would be an interesting experiment to manually add entries to wifi.db and invoke wifi.sh to see if it can find other wifi networks. If that proves out, perhaps the pCP team could consider adding a section in the wifi config screen for a second wifi network.
Just a thought.....

1st of all: Thank you to all the involved people in developing and improving piCorePlayer! It is an amazing s/w. Got my Zero W today - installed the image, added newconfig.cfg and was up & running! (*)
Added LMS, added Spotty and: It runs smoothly - no hickkups: So the Zero seems to have enough oumph for all the conversion going on.
(I tested it w/ a different Player though, as I need to figure out the GPIO remapping to get PWM audio....

Then wrt above quote: If that could work, that would be awsome! I cross fingers....

P.S. Thanks for the hint for Max2Play - for now, I will stay w/ pCP - I really like this lightweight system.

(*) The only issue I ran into was that I needed some time to understand that the SSID can not have [!] or [space] in it. (Probably a stumbler for a lot of germans with Fritz!Boxes....)

slimhase

2017-08-29, 14:53

Now I am stuck with getting PWM Audio from pCP on piZero:
I followed the linked instrucions: https://learn.adafruit.com/adding-basic-audio-ouput-to-raspberry-pi-zero/pi-zero-pwm-audio (admittedly without really knowing what I am doing....)
So, I added this:
dtoverlay=pwm-2chan,pin=18,func=2,pin2=13,func2=4
to the /boot/config.txt file, which should reroute the BCM pins 13 & 18 for PWM-Audio at boot.
To be verified via gpio readall, which should show BCM Pin18 on Mode Alt5 and BCM Pin13 on Mode Alt0 - but these Pins show not these desired modes, instead Pin18 shows Mode Alt0 and Pin13 shows Mode In
-> What am I doing wrong??
Can someone help / give hints, ....

**update**
The above method seems not to work - at least not for me.
However, I found a solution with this help: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=127585
Bottomline: you can set the GPIOS directly using the GPIO tool which is included in pCP w/ these instructions:
gpio -g mode 18 ALT5 (-> PWM0 to GPIO18)
gpio -g mode 13 ALT0 (-> PWM1 to GPIO13)
And I just added these 2 commands in the teaks menue in the 'user commands' section.
-> Audio on GPIO 13 & 18. Works great so far!

wtnh

2017-08-30, 08:21

Now I am stuck with getting PWM Audio from pCP on piZero:
I followed the linked instrucions: https://learn.adafruit.com/adding-basic-audio-ouput-to-raspberry-pi-zero/pi-zero-pwm-audio (admittedly without really knowing what I am doing....)
So, I added this:
dtoverlay=pwm-2chan,pin=18,func=2,pin2=13,func2=4
to the /boot/config.txt file, which should reroute the BCM pins 13 & 18 for PWM-Audio at boot.
To be verified via gpio readall, which should show BCM Pin18 on Mode Alt5 and BCM Pin13 on Mode Alt0 - but these Pins show not these desired modes, instead Pin18 shows Mode Alt0 and Pin13 shows Mode In
-> What am I doing wrong??
Can someone help / give hints, ....

**update**
The above method seems not to work - at least not for me.
However, I found a solution with this help: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=127585
Bottomline: you can set the GPIOS directly using the GPIO tool which is included in pCP w/ these instructions:
gpio -g mode 18 ALT5 (-> PWM0 to GPIO18)
gpio -g mode 13 ALT0 (-> PWM1 to GPIO13)
And I just added these 2 commands in the teaks menue in the 'user commands' section.
-> Audio on GPIO 13 & 18. Works great so far!

Glad you got it to work. However, I would not expect it to sound any better than a regular pi audio out jack. I found these to be noisy and not exactly hifi. You could probably improve sound with even a cheap hat dac.

slimhase

2017-08-30, 13:18

Glad you got it to work. However, I would not expect it to sound any better than a regular pi audio out jack. I found these to be noisy and not exactly hifi. You could probably improve sound with even a cheap hat dac.

Actually, I am pretty pleased with the sound! It is comparable to playing a FM Station on that radio. (No 'HiFi' of course - its a small table top radio....)
There is some light background 'wizzing' sound from the Pi if you listen very carefully, but I got that down considerably by adding 470uF at the Pi's 5V input and adding 22nF in parallel to the L&R Audio output.

The sweet thing is that I can grab 5V (or 4.8V) for the Pi from the 7.2V battery pack of the Pal by taking the Pi's power from the 1st 4 batteries of the pack. Works well so far.

wtnh

2017-08-30, 13:56

Actually, I am pretty pleased with the sound! It is comparable to playing a FM Station on that radio. (No 'HiFi' of course - its a small table top radio....)
There is some light background 'wizzing' sound from the Pi if you listen very carefully, but I got that down considerably by adding 470uF at the Pi's 5V input and adding 22nF in parallel to the L&R Audio output.

The sweet thing is that I can grab 5V (or 4.8V) for the Pi from the 7.2V battery pack of the Pal by taking the Pi's power from the 1st 4 batteries of the pack. Works well so far.

Hey - its all about the music anyway, and if you are happy with it look no further!

BTW - I just got a headless Pi Zero W working with an Allo Mini Boss dac (in I2C master mode) - running pCP 3.21 - sounds very nice streaming from LMS running on an RPi 3 over built-in wifi. I have not yet added LMS to the Zero or experimented with multiple SSIDs - one thing at a time!

slimhase

2017-08-31, 07:48

Hey - its all about the music anyway, and if you are happy with it look no further!

BTW - I just got a headless Pi Zero W working with an Allo Mini Boss dac (in I2C master mode) - running pCP 3.21 - sounds very nice streaming from LMS running on an RPi 3 over built-in wifi. I have not yet added LMS to the Zero or experimented with multiple SSIDs - one thing at a time!

Sounds good - let me know, if you have any new thoughts on the multiple SSID issue.

Other than that - here are some pictures from my piPAL setup:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?102957-pi-based-systems&p=893404&viewfull=1#post893404

Man in a van

2017-08-31, 10:47

Glad you got it to work. However, I would not expect it to sound any better than a regular pi audio out jack. I found these to be noisy and not exactly hifi. You could probably improve sound with even a cheap hat dac.

This is available to try on the pi, I don't know if it works on pCP though

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=136445

slimhase

2017-08-31, 13:41

This is available to try on the pi, I don't know if it works on pCP though

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=136445

Thanks for this hint!
Looking at my default config.txt, it has already the following line
audio_pwm_mode=2
in there.
So I guess, this optimization is already implemented in pCP?

ian_heys

2017-08-31, 19:42

I've been using the GGMM-E5 portable player in conjunction with Phillipe's UPNP plugin. It works as a reasonable looking/sounding, battery powered player (like a Bose speaker) any where in range of your home wifi. I started thinking of trying to do what you are doing but this device is much more elegant.

http://www.ggmm.com/e5-wireless-smart-speaker-p00011p1.html

slimhase

2017-09-24, 09:07

... I have not yet added LMS to the Zero or experimented with multiple SSIDs - one thing at a time!

Does someone have further ideas reg dual wifi setup on piCorePlayer?
More specific for a band-aid idea: Is there a way to access the FAT boot partition (PCP) of picoreplayer remotely while picoreplayer is running?
(Then I could have 2 newconfig.bak files and rename the appropriate one for the WLAN I want to access after next reboot... not really convenient, I know...)

General Update: My "piPAL" (see http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?102957-pi-based-systems&p=893404&viewfull=1#post893404) runs smoothly and I am happy with it.
Although - as many had recommended - I added an I2S DAC (generic PCM5102A) for sound improvement. I still had to fight noise issues where the Pi transmits 'computing noise' to the PALs Amplifier.
This seems to be due to the Pi feeding off the same power source - the PALs battery and due ot the fact that they are so close together.
Noise was *almost* fixed by adding a ferrite core for the power-wires to the Pi and putting max distance between Pi cables and PAL cables.

Now, I am really happy with the setup - if I only find a way to toggle between 2 WiFi settings......

c3p0

2017-09-25, 22:50

[QUOTE=slimhase;895612]Does someone have further ideas reg dual wifi setup on piCorePlayer?
More specific for a band-aid idea: Is there a way to access the FAT boot partition (PCP) of picoreplayer remotely while picoreplayer is running?
(Then I could have 2 newconfig.bak files and rename the appropriate one for the WLAN I want to access after next reboot... not really convenient, I know...)

Hi,
You could use an esp8266 as a wifi repeater(extender) which mimics the security settings of your internal wifi, such that when you exit the house with your portable player the esp8266 goes with you (built into your player) and aks like a mini router which you can access via your phone to communicate with the picoreplayer.
You then don't have to have dual wifi, you could build a switch to trigger the esp8266 as and when you need it.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-WiFi-Range-Extender-for-IoT/

I built one to use accessing a motioneyesos standalone remote camera.

I'm sure it would work for the portable player too.

c3p0

2017-09-27, 02:40

Hi,
I can now confirm that this successfully works with pizero with lms running non-audiophile version 3.2 with phat at full dac benefits running flac.

Other benefit is mobile phone can both act as remote control viewer when it's wifi is set to the esp8266 hub as well as ability to listen via phone ( ok MP3 quality).

Using a wifi dongle and USB 16gb stick for music repository with USB extender.

Next two experiments will involve running it on pizero w and trying an old mobile sim hub (without sim).

c3p0

2017-09-27, 05:07

Excellant, working nicely, sound quality top notch, should make a nice compact package as a portable player.

Pizerow, phatdac, esp8266 as wifi hub, USB drive and battery, I think I should be able to squeeze these into a small case with access for micro USB power to charge battery and a headphone socket.

I might need to incorporate a switch to switch on and off esp8266 and another for pizero.

This would allow me to connect to internal network via esp8266 or via pizero.

For remote use switch esp8266 on, control of tunes via smart phone.

Changing mobile network at moment so haven't been able to get mobile hub working yet.

slimhase

2017-09-29, 02:12

Hi,
You could use an esp8266 as a wifi repeater(extender) which mimics the security settings of your internal wifi, such that when you exit the house with your portable player the esp8266 goes with you (built into your player) and aks like a mini router which you can access via your phone to communicate with the picoreplayer.
You then don't have to have dual wifi, you could build a switch to trigger the esp8266 as and when you need it.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Cheap-WiFi-Range-Extender-for-IoT/
I built one to use accessing a motioneyesos standalone remote camera.
I'm sure it would work for the portable player too.

Thanks for that idea & link. I will definetely try this WiFi extender Idea using ESP8266 - which I am using already for other things.
For my PiPal this is not the path to go, unfortunately: Adding another WiFi transmitter in the Radio enclosure would add distortion noise further, which I have a hard time reducing already as it is....

So, does anyone know how to access the FAT boot partition (PCP) of picoreplayer while picoreplayer is running?

Greg Erskine

2017-09-29, 02:30

I do. :)

Greg Erskine

2017-09-29, 02:36

hi slimhase,

If Sourceforge stays up long enough, this help page should give you some ideas.

http://picoreplayer.sourceforge.net/how_to_edit_config_txt.shtml

regards
Greg

slimhase

2017-09-29, 05:51

hi slimhase,

If Sourceforge stays up long enough, this help page should give you some ideas.

http://picoreplayer.sourceforge.net/how_to_edit_config_txt.shtml

regards
Greg

Great - thank you, Greg!
If I put "m1" in Tweaks - usercommand it will automount at boot?
I guess I will find out...

Greg Erskine

2017-09-29, 14:49

Probably, but if it doesn't work, scroll down the help page a little to find to "longhand" version of the mount command.

Why do you want to have it mounted? By having it mounted and writeable you are increasing your chances of SD card corruption.

Our normal pCP process is to mount mmcblk0p1, do the work then unmount it.

c3p0

2017-09-29, 21:46

Thanks for that idea & link. I will definetely try this WiFi extender Idea using ESP8266 - which I am using already for other things.
For my PiPal this is not the path to go, unfortunately: Adding another WiFi transmitter in the Radio enclosure would add distortion noise further, which I have a hard time reducing already as it is....

So, does anyone know how to access the FAT boot partition (PCP) of picoreplayer while picoreplayer is running?

Are you not using a Dac? What type of noise? I've been using a Pi Zero with a couple of different Zero dacs mounted right over the Zero W and not got any noise issues.

slimhase

2017-09-30, 05:38

.....
Why do you want to have it mounted? By having it mounted and writeable you are increasing your chances of SD card corruption.
....

Greg, thanks. I didn't think of that - doesn't make sense then...doh.

Are you not using a Dac? What type of noise? I've been using a Pi Zero with a couple of different Zero dacs mounted right over the Zero W and not got any noise issues.

c3p0; I do use a DAC, but there is still noise spilling into the radio.
The noise comes and goes w/ WiFi activity. It is independent from the volume, so it is more annoying when listening on low volume.
I guess it happens, because I use the setup with an analog radio/amplifier. That is probably more sensitive then a digital amp..

I got it down by wiring the Pi power cable through a ferrite core and keeping all wires from the pi as far as possible from the Tivolis PCB.

itm

2017-12-20, 06:02

I have a large music collection (90k tracks), but would like to take a portable LMS server away with me when I travel, for playback on a phone or tablet. I was thinking something along the lines of:
- Music collection on a USB drive
- LMS server running on a RaspPi
- Hootoo tripmate (which I already own) to provide a local wifi network (and also has a USB port for connection of a HDD)
- Playback and LMS control on an Android phone or tablet.

The problem is I have no idea how to set it up, or whether the Pi will have enough horsepower to manage and navigate a music collection of that size.

I've looked at the PiCorePlayer site, but don't see any instructions there for setting it up as an LMS server. I don't own a Pi so can't download it to try it out.

Can anyone tell me whether the above components can provide the sort of solution that I'm looking for, and if so how I should go about it?

M-H

2017-12-26, 15:51

I do use a DAC, but there is still noise spilling into the radio.
The noise comes and goes w/ WiFi activity. It is independent from the volume, so it is more annoying when listening on low volume.
I guess it happens, because I use the setup with an analog radio/amplifier. That is probably more sensitive then a digital amp..

I got it down by wiring the Pi power cable through a ferrite core and keeping all wires from the pi as far as possible from the Tivolis PCB.

Hi slimhase, I too had problems of noise from the pi analogue outputs ( builtin, self-built on zero, and external dac's) when connected to a small amp using the same power source as the pi.
You can either use a separate power source ( 2nd set of batteries ) or avoid it by using a dac+amp board.
I just got my phat beat going with PCP and I am pleased with the d-amp feeding the speakers. Enough power for small applications, and no noise from powercircuits or wifi. I use them with my hifi speakers ATM and the music is flawless, except the plops at startup of squeezelight are not suppressed.

There are also other dac+damp solutions available; the speaker bonnet, a MAX98357A board, boards based on the wolfson chipset .

As a solution for WIFI on the go; I emulate my home wifi SSID with my smartphone its hotspot. The the pi ( pcp ) connects without knowing it is on the road. Fixed reservations in the DHCP is an problem though, my phone hotspot does not cater for that, however the same solution from my laptop does.

I have not really used a LMS implementation on the zero, but a 64 Gig SD is affordable these days, and can provide some local storage. I should try that on my next holiday.

Greetz M-H

slimhase

2017-12-27, 13:29

Hi slimhase, I too had problems of noise from the pi analogue outputs ( builtin, self-built on zero, and external dac's) when connected to a small amp using the same power source as the pi.
You can either use a separate power source ( 2nd set of batteries ) or avoid it by using a dac+amp board.
I just got my phat beat going with PCP and I am pleased with the d-amp feeding the speakers. Enough power for small applications, and no noise from powercircuits or wifi. I use them with my hifi speakers ATM and the music is flawless, except the plops at startup of squeezelight are not suppressed.

There are also other dac+damp solutions available; the speaker bonnet, a MAX98357A board, boards based on the wolfson chipset .

As a solution for WIFI on the go; I emulate my home wifi SSID with my smartphone its hotspot. The the pi ( pcp ) connects without knowing it is on the road. Fixed reservations in the DHCP is an problem though, my phone hotspot does not cater for that, however the same solution from my laptop does.

I have not really used a LMS implementation on the zero, but a 64 Gig SD is affordable these days, and can provide some local storage. I should try that on my next holiday.

Greetz M-H

Thanks for your suggestions.
As I wanted to use a Tivoli PAL as my 'Amp & Loudspeaker', I finally took the PiZero + DAC again out of the PAL box and connect it externally with a ~5cm Audio-cable. Also, as you mentioned, I now use a separate battery (an old IPhone battery). The Pi Zero, the battery+charging circuit, and the DAC all fit in a small Pi3 enclosure, which sits behind the PAL.

Works nicely - its my tiny travel / weekend home LMS setup.

wtnh

2018-01-01, 08:13

Does someone have further ideas reg dual wifi setup on piCorePlayer?
More specific for a band-aid idea: Is there a way to access the FAT boot partition (PCP) of picoreplayer remotely while picoreplayer is running?
(Then I could have 2 newconfig.bak files and rename the appropriate one for the WLAN I want to access after next reboot... not really convenient, I know...)

General Update: My "piPAL" (see http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?102957-pi-based-systems&p=893404&viewfull=1#post893404) runs smoothly and I am happy with it.
Although - as many had recommended - I added an I2S DAC (generic PCM5102A) for sound improvement. I still had to fight noise issues where the Pi transmits 'computing noise' to the PALs Amplifier.
This seems to be due to the Pi feeding off the same power source - the PALs battery and due ot the fact that they are so close together.
Noise was *almost* fixed by adding a ferrite core for the power-wires to the Pi and putting max distance between Pi cables and PAL cables.

Now, I am really happy with the setup - if I only find a way to toggle between 2 WiFi settings......

I have not done any further experiments on multi-wifi capability of pCP, but this thread (http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?108341-Wireless-access-point-on-piCorePlayer) demontrates that pCP can be turned into its own access point. Paul has not had a chance to test this on a pi Zero W, but I imagine it would work. I have built a headless pi Zero W with pCP and LMS all on a single SD card; see this post (http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?107352-Announce-piCorePlayer-3-20&p=901190&highlight=headless#post901190) for details.